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Foton-11 interface tests

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Title Foton-11 interface tests

Released 01/01/1998 12:00 am

Copyright Franz Burger, Kayser-Threde, Muenchen, Germany

Description

ESA's Foton-11 mission manager Pietro Baglioni at work on the Biopan experiment carrier (hidden) on top of the Foton-11 descent capsule during the final electrical/mechanical interface tests at the Progress factory in Samara, Russia, in July 1997. At top is Germany's MIRKA 1 m-diameter reentry sphere that was separated shortly before reentry and recovered a few hundred km away from the main capsule. Russia's Foton-11 microgravity mission was launched from Plesetsk on 9 October 1997 carrying ESA's Biobox-3 and external Biopan-2 carriers, plus three autonomous experiments, totalling 12 biology experiments involving scientists from France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands and Russia. Foton also carried payloads from CNES and DARA. The descent capsule landed safely 200 km south-east of Kustenay in Kazakhstan on 23 October 1997. [Image Date: 1997/07] [98.01.012-020]